I Rant

Shortly after I left the computer yesterday, I remembered one of the topics that I was thinking of writing about and, I'm warning you now, this may turn into a bit of rant. I might use some swear words and I WILL be discussing bodily wastes, so If you are squeamish about any of these things, it would be best to stop reading here.

On Monday, I stopped a gas station in the town of Lovelock, I won't say which one, but if you've driven through Lovelock on I-80 you can probably figure it out. I stop there to use their restroom almost every time I drive through and although their thrones are not all that glamorous, they are usually just fine--especially when compared to all the gas station toilets I've used throughout my life.

Well, yesterday when I stopped for my usual bathroom break the toilet seat was absolutely covered in, a not so fine spray of, some other person's urine. It was disgusting. I understand that some people are scared of toilet seats and don't want to sit on them, but come on sisters, if you hover, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie! It ridiculous for people not to sit on the seat anyways. In my microbiology class we did the bacteria test, where we swabbed places from all over town, including toilet seats. Know what we found out, toilet seats are one of the cleanest things in a bathroom. It makes sense, they are cleaned everyday--often more than once a day. Check out this article from ABC. Really, the big issue in the spread of germs is hand washing, DO IT. The people who hover, pissing and pooping on the seats are the ones who make toilets seats gross, so STOP IT.

If you are still afraid of the toilet seat germs, most bathroom have those handy dandy little paper toilet seat covers, USE THEM!!! I use the covers in sani-huts, because even if they are clean, they just seem gross to me. And I'll admit it, I do hover from time to time in toilets that just seem nasty, but if I sprinkle while I tinkle, I clean it the F*** up! Haha, I should do a rendition of S. Jackson's version of "Go the F*** to Sleep" but make it, "Clean Your Piss-N-Shit the F*** up!"

Anyway, a friend of mine recently published a post on different kinds of rude people and she brought up people who don't wipe up after they make a mess on the toilet seat. After yesterdays visit to the gas station bathroom, I couldn't help but think of the her post and a comment someone left on it. Anonymous said something to the effect of "I shat all over a toilet seat the other day and since I didn't have my 409 on me and I didn't want to waste a bunch of toilet paper, I didn't clean the mess up." I'm sorry, but if you're so afraid of your own shit, why the hell would you make someone else clean it up for you! And, I may be the asshole here, but unless you are a baby or in someway medically incapable of doing it your self, you should be the only one who cleans up your piss and shit.

All right, all right, the rant is over. I apologize, but I guess it's a pet peeve of mine and usually, if it's just a little sprinkle, I clean it up myself, but yesterdays was all over the toilet seat and just plain disgusting--hence the rant.

Have a great day and remember: if you sprinkle while you tinkle be a sweetie and wipe the seatie! It's much appreciated--by pretty much everyone...even you.

I Blank

On my drive to Paradise Valley today I thought of several posts I wanted to share with you all, but now that I'm sitting here, in front of my computer, I forget them all. Why does that always happen? So many times when I sit down in front of the computer I forget the all cool stuff from the day that I wanted to research or I forget what it is I wanted to write.

Oh well, hopefully the ideas come back to me soon.

10-25-2008: No Camping in Sight!

There is so much I want to write about, but I don't want to do it now - "I want to do right, but not right now." My brain is all muddled and frustrated at the moment and I don't want my writings to be clouded with all the negativity I'm feeling at the moment. Why am I so frustrated? Let me tell you, when we left Flagstaff, we decided to ride down Lake Mary Road. We made this decision because our map showed that it was a recreation area with a lot of forest service land and forest service roads all around it. The map also showed several established campgrounds along it. There are also several lakes not far off Lake Mary Road which was very appealing to us as well. Come to find out, there is no camping on any of the forest service lands out here. Everywhere we go there are these signs that say "Campfires and camping prohibited." There is no explanation to why this is, but the signs are everywhere. I can understand the campfire thing, it's a dry area, but camping I don't get. Especially right off of the forest service roads, why do they have all these forest service roads cutting up the area if you can't camp off of them? Where are the roads going to? I understand too if it is a sensitive area and they don't want people camping there, but usually there are signs to that affect. The signs here just make me mad, it's like they're saying forest service is God and you can't sleep here. It's public land!!! To top it all off all the established campgrounds were closed for the season. What the heck are we supposed to do? It's the end of October one of the most beautiful times of year in Arizona and there is absolutely no place to camp. Something is seriously screwy with the "system."

*We ended up camping on this little pull out off of a dirt road, the only place in the area that didn't have a sign that declared camping prohibited. It was an okay spot, not great, there was a wedding going on at a lodge above the hill from us, a ton of cars flew by us kicking up dirt and we could hear rockin' music until about 3:00 in the morning. Hahahaha...what a night.

10-20-2008: Frustrations With National Parks!

We are here to get you out of your cars and onto your feet, bikes, skates, kayaks, skis, etc... Anything that is powered by the beautiful machine that is you!!!

We made it to the Grand Canyon, YAY!!!! One of the major goals of this trip (at least for me). It is very beautiful. The shades of brown, pink and white have a magical essence about them. It's too bad that it is so overrun with tourists. Yes, yes I know we are tourists too, exploiting the beauty, the scenery, the natural wonder. And, even though it's sad to see it so overrun, everyone we've talked to has been very nice.

I'm going to regress, I am very upset at something I learned today and you should be too. For one car to enter the park is $25.00, for one bike to enter is $12.00, at first that may sound reasonable, a bike pays half the price of a car. However, when you take a closer look it means that a group of four friends riding into the park on bikes has to pay twice as much as four friends driving into the park in a gas guzzling SUV. For Dan and I to enter the park it cost us $24.00 pretty much the same as if we would have driven in. In addition to that, the park had very little in the way of bike facilities. For instance, there were no bike lanes or multi-use paths. In actuality the shoulders inside the park were narrower and in worse condition than the shoulder on the highway (64) which leads to the park. The only facilities that the park had were a couple of bike racks at the visitors center and at the library. So I ask, what is it that cycilists are paying for? Why should a group of cyclists have to pay double if not more than that than a group in a polluting SUV? I'm sorry, but this made me extremely frustrated, we should start a campaign for cheaper entry fee for groups of cyclists entering National Parks. There should be incentives for people who are entering National Parks using environmentally friendly, alternative modes of transportation. National Parks are our countries beautiful, natural, environmental treasures and they are being destroyed by mobs of automobiles, currently they are built to accommodate cars over human-powered commuters. Why punish people who are trying to visit the parks in a more sensitive way? It boggles the mind, making absolutely no sense. Alright, I'm done b%$ching!

For the most part, today was really fun. We were treated like mini-celebrities. People were so excited to see the dogs in their Doggy Ride. Tons of people were taking pictures of us and some people even took their picture with us. I wish the dogs could go on the trails here, we would stay for a couple of days and do some hiking, but since they can't we are only making it a day trip.

So we've been thinking, instead of going back on highway 89 we are going to take the Arizona Trail which is dirt roads. It'll be nice, the dogs will be able to run, so far on this trip they haven't been able to run much at all (we've been on highways). It will be nice for us to get out of the traffic, dirt roads are always cooler and not being so concerned with the traffic, you get to enjoy the scenery so much more.